PRESIDENT Mary McAleese yesterday urged the North's leaders not to abandon the peace settlement that has changed lives on both sides of the political divide.

Speaking in Belfast during a visit to a police college, Mrs McAleese said there was no alternative but to keep moving the peace process forward.

"We were reminded earlier this week of how real and present the difficulties of building that shared future remain," she said.

"It is very much a work in the early stages of progress and requiring significant effort to move it to the next stage of development.

"But with the readiness of stakeholders to make every effort to get to agreed resolutions and of the continued engagement of the British and Irish Governments as guarantors, and with the express will of the people for peace, the future cannot be a slide-back to the past but a step forward -- a step up to a dynamic and forward-looking Northern Ireland."